OYSTER-TRADE OF BOSTON. 139 



towns is now obtained from the south,* — from the bays 

 of New York chiefly, and from the Delaware and the 

 Chesapeake. Two species of oyster are known on this 

 coast — the Ostrea horealis and the Ostrea virginiana^ 

 commonly distinguished as the northern and southern 

 oysters. Both grow to a large size compared with our 

 English and Scotch oysters. A common size of shell in 

 the northern species is five and six inches, though some 

 arrive at twelve inches in length and six in breadth : the 

 southern shell often measures twelve to fifteen inches in 

 length, by not more than three inches in breadth. 



The fishermen of New England and New York import 

 the oysters from their native beds, on the mud banks of 

 the southern shores, in a young state, and plant them in 

 layers near their own homes, where they increase in size 

 and flavour, and grow in numbers, though not fast 

 enough to supply the home demand. I had no opportu- 

 nity of obtaining accurate information in regard to the 

 oyster-trade which supports the town of Fairhaven ; but 

 its extent may in some measure be judged of by what 

 Dr Augustus A. Gould has stated in regard to the same 

 trade in Boston. The oysters consumed in Massachu- 

 setts, he says, amount to about 100,000 bushels a-year, 

 and they are sold wholesale at a dollar a bushel. The 

 beds — or scalps^ as they are called in Scotland — are 

 chiefly situated at Wellfleet, near Cape Cod. About 

 40,000 bushels of small young oysters are annually 

 imported, and planted in this place. Thirty vessels, of 

 about forty tons each, are engaged in the trade, employ- 

 ing one hundred and twenty men for three months in the 

 year. In the autumn the oysters are taken up again, 

 and those are selected which have grown to a proper size 

 for market. The vast quantities of oyster-shells one sees 

 employed as rubbish to fill up hollows in the outskirts of 



* Dr Goiildj Invertelrata of Massachusetts, p. 358. 



